Himba Pond Dance

Trey Hollinswood, 15, and his thirteen-year-old sister Kim are dealing with a lot: Their parents separate; the bank forecloses on their home; they stay with their mom in a homeless shelter and then in the home of a customer, Walt, she meets at work. The atmosphere at Walt's is tense and life for Trey and Kim is made more difficult because they have to share a bedroom. Like all young people they have issues, Trey his burgeoning sexuality and Kim her sexual identity. They learn about both and ultimately the importance of friendship, Trey with Julie, Walt's older teenage daughter, and Emily, a schoolmate and cotillion partner, and Kim with Cyd, a girl in her soccer league. Their coming of age stories are two of many stories about people of all ages "growing up" in this novel set in Southern California during the Great Recession.